The websites of Nik Life and Prestupnosti.NET, two news websites from Mykolaiv in Southern Ukraine, went offline after a cyber attack on February 12. According to IMI, a Kyiv-based press freedom group, websites used by NATO were also targeted on the same day. As of February 22, the Ukrainian websites remain unaccessible.
Anatoly Chubachenko, the editor-in-chief of Prestupnosti.NET, said that both websites went offline due to an attack on data hosting servers located in Europe and in the United States. Website data and backup have been blocked, Chubachenko added, claiming he believed Russian hackers were behind the incident. The origin of the attack could not be independently verified.
Cyber attacks on Ukrainian news website are common since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Nearly 30 of these are registered in the IPI War in Ukraine Press Freedom Tracker.
UPDATE: On 1 March 2023, editor-in-chief of Prestupnosti.NET informed that access to the website had been restored. Nik.Life, however, remained offline.